Virginia Mahlke is a consultant who works with educators and administrators nationwide. Her experience as both a teacher and administrator allows her to connect with all levels of school staff.
Do Our Behaviors Reflect Our Intentions?
Are we going where we think we are going?
Do our behaviors reflect our intentions in our professional learning community?
This posting addresses schools that have been working as a PLC for a couple of years. Rick DuFour says that the road to a PLC is full of parking lots where a school can get stuck and fail to continue on the journey. At that point it’s time for a check of current reality. In Whatever it Takes, chapter 8 (2004) DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Karhanek identified 9 common threads that were present in 4 very different, yet very successful PLC schools. Looking at these 9 common threads, along with products and questions that indicate these threads are present and thriving in your school, is a good way to assess your current reality.
What are these 9 common threads?
- Clarity of Purpose
- Collaborative Culture
- Collective Inquiry into Best Practice and Current Reality
- Action Orientation
- Commitment to Continuous Improvement
- Focus on Results
- Strong Principals Who Empower Teachers
- Commitments to Face Adversity, Conflict, and Anxiety
- The Same Guiding Phrase
The attached tool will guide you through a self-examination of how your school or district is addressing these 9 common threads. Feel free to print, share, and distribute this resource as needed!
Comments
karobinson
I can see how school districts can get stuck and the journey stops. I feel that is where my school is at right now. We have some new administration this year and will again next year. This changing of the guards has made things difficult for us to move on. It seems we have kind of lost focus and need to re-group. We could definitely benefit by looking at our purpose and being sure that all staff are on the same page.
My district provides us a half day each month but our time is always accounted for. It would be nice like schong to be given that time to look at our students' work and our teaching. We are given some time to do this work but it is so spread out throughout the year it does not seem to be all that effective.
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Ginny Mahlke
Hi Jason - I have found this activity to be one of the most popular/intriguing activities in a PLC workshop. For awhile I struggled, as the presenter, to put this activity into a context that was most meaningful. Here is the way I use it now and I offer this to you as a suggestion. One of the first things we talk about in the formation of a PLC is to build a strong and firm foundation by identifying the mission of the school (why people come there to work each day), the vision for the school (what you want said about the school in 3 - 5 years), the values about learning that the staff holds, and the goals the staff is willing to commit to. I use the 4 schools activity with the Values component of the foundation. I start by asking if everyone in the room believes that all kids can learn. This is usually answered with a resounding YES. Then I use the 4 schools activity to point out how people's ideas of what "all kids can learn" can differ. An important part of the debrief and ensuing discussion is for the participants to understand how critical it is to the mission and vision of the school for everyone to have the same belief about kids and learning.
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Jason72761
I am wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to use the assumption About Learning resource with the four schools of thought (Charles darwin, Pontius Pilot, Chicago Cubs Fan, and Henry Higgins school. Anyone have thoughts as to the process you used to introduce this.
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dythompson
I think that PLC is a great tool for schools. Getting teachers involved in the success of students will surely motivate the students to strive harder. I will be looking into the school district in my area and see what kind of support system is available for the students and the teachers. Thanks for the information on PLC.
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Ginny Mahlke
To Schong
Thank you so much for your perspective after 5 years as a PLC. The purpose of the initial posting was to help people move beyong the "parking lots" described by Rick duFour to the fully functioning PLC that you now enjoy. I'm sure you will attest to the fact that it is hard work, but the rewards to students and staff are beyond expectations. Congratulations as you continue your PLC journey.
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schong
As a member of a Professional Learning Community for the last 5 years I have found this time with my colleagues to be sacred and the outcome successful. My school district implimented an early release day each Friday specifically for PLC collaboration. My grade level team meets for 40 minutes each Friday and discusses our students' progress, assessments, and intervention strategies. We have a yearly "overarching" goal for our students and we have goals that we develop based on common assessments. We then ability group our students to provide intervention in a specific area based on our state standards. Each year our goal is to exceed our previous years proficient percentages. We strive for all of our students to be proficient or advanced by the end of the school year. PLC is certainly a key componant in helping our students to be successful.
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Ginny Mahlke
To TPrivette - Thanks for your comment and for your understanding of the power of collaboration. A professional learning community can form and thrive at any level - district, school, grade level/department. Since a PLC is a group of professionals committed to a mutually agreed upon goal for increasing student achievement, you can start working with those in your immediate workgroup. I would suggest looking at Learning by Doing, which is one of the publications at www.solution-tree.com. This is a practial book that will stimulate discussion and offer avenues for starting the work of a PLC. I would also suggest that you attend a PLC Institute or Summit so you hear some of the experts and some of the practitioners. Dates and locations for these Institutes are also found on the Solution Tree website. The first step is to find people who are willing to learn about, and come to a shared understanding of, the basic concepts of a PLC. Then the group collaboratively sets goals for student achievement, plans together, creates common assessments, reviews results, determines next steps for students and assess their practice based on the success of the students. While the process of working as a PLC has well researched benefits for the achievement of students, I also believe that it rejuvenates teachers and helps them challenge themselves to do even better work on behalf of their students. Good luck.
Ginny Mahlke
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TPrivette
I love the concept of PLC, but how do you get it started in your school or district? I couldn't agree more that teachers need to collaborate with other teachers to succeed in the teaching profession.
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